Skele: Character Animation Tools, Cutscenes and Animations authoring tools

Thanks. Can i copy/paste animation data from one body part to another (hips to spine for example) ? Now i can only copy in the same line

 

Hi,

Nope. The Animation View cannot copy keyframes from one joint to another joint.

But do you mean to move all the keyframes from hips to spine?

You could try using the AnimCurvePropEditor, you can using it to change the transform path of your curves, and make them apply to new joint.

Check the doc here: http://www.tmpxyz.com/Skele/docs/84-utility/80-utilities?showall=&start=4
Take a look at the ChangePath part

 

Hi developer!

I purchased Skele recently and studying the usage of it last several days.
Could you please take a look at the attachment to see the problem I have with Skele?

As you see in the image, I created a very simple clip which had only two key frames but the interpolation went totally messed up when I hit the play button.
Adding "Angle Constraint MB" did not help at all... ( It worked well while I was setting the poses, of cour se.)

I suppose, I should have missed something very basic thing. Could you please advise me how I can fix this problem?

Unity 5.3.3f
Skele 1.3.3
Rig Generic

Thank you,
Gen

 

Hi, Gisono,

Thanks for your feedback,

When you use Euler interpolation, this issue could happen. But indeed the interpolation itself is correct, it's just the math.

Solution: (Try from the top)
1. Switch to Quaternion interpolation for that curve;
2. Add more keyframes in the middle;
3. Use Constraint + AnimationBaker;

instruction details:
http://www.tmpxyz.com/Skele/docs/84-utility/81-f-a-q#tips-to-author-animation

Tell me if you find it not clear enough,

Best regards,

 

Thank you for your quick reply, TMPxyz.

Indeed I already had tried Quaternion interpolation and did not work well.

I tried adding key frames, but I found that I needed to add keys almost all frames to prevent unnecessary rotation.
Please see the image below. I made a simpler example. I rotated the right thigh about -77 degree around its local x axis but I got rotation y and z of -360 degree which caused the strange behavior of the animation. (Interpolation method had been set to quartanion)

By deleting these unnecessary rotation of y and z axis, I get what I wanted to make, but I do not think this is the way you expect Skele to work.


Regarding the advise No.2, are you mentioning about attaching "Limit Rotate" script to bones? I tried that and got another problem there...

If you have model data, would it help you to understand the problem I have? If so, I will upload it.

[Solved]
After few days of researching and trying, I found that the problem seemed to be caused by the fbx exporter I was using.

After start rigging my models using Blender, I have never seen the problem before I had.
FYI, I used to use Metasequia which is pretty popular modeling software in Japan. It should work fine for Humanoid models, but may not work well for Generic models...

Anyway, thank you TMPxyz for offering such a great tools, and sorry for taking your time.

Gen

 

Hi, @gisono,

Sorry for the late reply,

Hmm, interesting, usually Quaternion & a handful of extra keyframes should handle it cleanly.
I've been using Blender for modeling & skinning, I'm curious what kind of skeleton this model is skinned with.
I'm quite interested in your original model, could you please send the mech model to me to test with?

Indeed I mean, you could use constraints to make the animation and bake it into normal animation clip.
This method needs some one-time setup, but it makes subsequent animation authoring work easier.
You can check out the walk-cycle example videos on this page:
http://www.tmpxyz.com/Skele/docs/83-constraintsys/79-constraint-system-manual?showall=&start=21

Dont' hesitate to tell me if you have other questions

Best regards,

 

Hi, I have some troubles with your asset.

1. Im trying to create an additional animation for my human rigged character. I read, that it is just possible in generic animation type. I duplicated my char. and made the change in that. I was able to generate an animation, but I couldn't use a generic animation on a human rig type. Unity 5.3.3 don't allows this. How to use your tool for creating additional biped animations, so, that I can use the old human rig type animations?

2. Then I tried to convert the generic animation to a human rigged animation type with your converter, but that is not possible. Your muscle clip converter does not allow me to select the human entry. Why am I have to select an animator for converting an animation, and then why always one animation is converted (cannot select the animation that I want to convert)?

 

Point 2 works with dae export/import, but I was hoping that the muscle clip converter can do this for me. This is OK dae works.

I did dae export/import but the animation was not the same. Some rotations were not the same.

What is the best way to changing human animations?

Is your asset able to add IK for non human like characters, e.g. a spider?

 

Hi, mkgame,

Thanks for your feedback,

1. "How to use your tool for creating additional biped animations, so, that I can use the old human rig type animations?"
You could use "DAE Exporter" to convert Generic clips to Humanoid clips;
You can find the video tutorial in this post.

2. "I tried to convert the generic animation to a human rigged animation...Your muscle clip converter does not allow me..."
Muscle clip converter is another thing;

Muscle clip converter is used to convert: Humanoid clip ==> Generic clip;
DAE Exporter is used to convert: Generic clip ==> Humanoid clip;

3. "I did dae export/import but the animation was not the same. Some rotations were not the same."

(1) please ensure you're using the latest version of Skele package(v1.9.4), you can check it by seeing if there's "update" button in AssetStore window;
(2) Do you mean the exported Generic clip is not the same with the original one?
If so, please send the "original model & clip " to me.

If you mean the Humanoid clip you get after converting rig-type, doesn not look the same as the original generic clip, that could be from the design of Humanoid clip.
You could see an example in the video below, the humanoid clip doesn't yield same look on another model;

4. "What is the best way to changing human animations?"
There're two cases based on if your humanoid clip has a FBX/DAE archive;
It's easier to handle if you have an archive;

Check it at F.A.Q. section:
http://www.tmpxyz.com/Skele/docs/84-utility/81-f-a-q#how-to-edit-humanoid-clip

5. "Is your asset able to add IK for non human like characters, e.g. a spider?"
Yes, Skele's IK does NOT require any specific structure of skeleton hierarchy. It could work on any skinned mesh;

In Editor: ( constraints are already setup on the joints )

In Runtime:
www.kongregate.com/games/tmpxyz/global-warming

( If you need instructions on how to setup bone constraints, check this manual page: http://www.tmpxyz.com/Skele/docs/79-skeletonanim/74-skeleton-animation-tutorial?showall=&start=5)

 

Very much thanks for your answer! Adding IK for non human objects is a great feature, and animating human characters with export/import conversion is still the much less painful way to create unity compatible human animations. Else, I would have Blender-Rigify, that is a possibility too, but then for non human characters is simply your asset the better choice. And also for human characters, because to setup the rig in Blender for Unity for each model simply takes too long and importing animations in Blender with fbx was also not successfully.

I'am happy to have your asset!

To 3., I ment humanoid clip, thanks for the link to the video.

 

Hi,

1. is there any way to change relative the position of a bone for the entire animation? If I want to change the position of the hand 2 units upper, then I don't want to change it in every keyframe.

2. Or somehow set in IK mode a fix position for the hand (hand influence the lower and upper arm too), simply automatically removing all the keyframes for them and just insert the current one in the first keyframe.

 

Hi again,
I successfully changed an animation without any rotation errors. But changing animations for humans is quite hopless, because after after converting there are in each sample a key...
However, I decided to create new animations, but then after converting the animations to human animations rotation errors again happened.

Simple question, how to create new human animations?

Skele 1.9.4
Unity 5.3.3

 

Figured out myself. On the first exported dae file additionally update reference clips must be clicked on the Rig tab. Just changing the rig for the dae files to human is not enough...

But hey, however 2-3h work for creating the animations is not wasted!

But please anwer the questions in #711, thanks.

 

Hi

Any tips on stopping the rotations spinning in the wrong direction. I tried using your webdemo with robot kyle and tried adjusting the rotation by adding say 5 degrees. It always spins the wrong way as can be seen on the gif I have attached

I tired Quaternion interpolation as you suggested in an earlier post

thanks

 

@mattSydney

I have a similar problem, but not with generic rig type. I guess you are just able to change the generic animation, because Unity don't allow to change the human animations. The fix could be, right click on the top key in the 2. keyframe and select flat interpolation.

@TMPxyz

I have serious trouble with exporting animations in dae files and importing them in human animations. The generic animation works as intended, but after exporting in dae and changing it to human animation I have weird 360 degree rotations in the animations. I used in the animation IK and non IK rotations and position changes. It seems to be when the last change on a bone is caused by non IK rotation, then it has a good chance to weird rotations in the converted human animation... Probably editing the bone just a little bit in IK mode could fix the non IK caused weird rotations (tried on one animation, on the only one rotation bug, and the buged animation was fixed, but probably just a side effect), but it is very much just a guess.

If I change the samples in the animation window for the generic animation and then convert it to human animation can fix and can cause errors. This seems to be the only one thing that influence the bugged human animations.

From 5 human animations 3-4 have this bug. Non of my generic animations have the bug like @mattSydney it has. Generic animations works fine.

+ Samples in the human animations are set to 12, I used 6, 10 in my generic animations. Is it a minimum keyframe restriction in dae?

 

Two critical bugs in dae exporter:

1. Finally find out a reason why the dae exporter fails. The bug is, that when more than one animation clip has been attached to the dae exporter dialog, then the sample rate is corrupted for the exported animations. If just one animation will be exported, then the sample rate is the same like that in the generic animation. I didn't find the bug in the DaeExporter.cs script yet.

2. Low sample rate setting for generic animations in the animation window (in my case 5) lead after dae export to crazy human animations. 30 sample rate setting works for all my 5 animations.

 

Okay, Just be back from LudumDare35,
You could take a play with my game:
http://ludumdare.com/compo/ludum-dare-35/?action=preview&uid=39382

Now get back to process what is left over when I'm off.

Someone asked about how to do RootMotion via mail, I found out that there's something new in Unity side and then I updated the tutorial here, you could have a look if you want to make RootMotion sometime.

 

Ah, yeah, I can see usecase1 in some clips, they have keyframes in every interval and when you want to modify it you either do it every keyframe or redo it on the whole curve (Like I did in the video in prev post)
Hmm, to handle this I'll need to investigate how it's done in other software like blender.
If you've good resource on this part please do recommend it to me.

Didn't quite understand the second one. You mean delete all keyframes on some curves? you could directly delete them by select and delete in AnimationView?

Check this doc post:
http://www.tmpxyz.com/Skele/docs/84-utility/81-f-a-q#how-to-convert-generic-clip-to-humanoid-clip

Put simply:
1. make/edit in Generic rig;
2. Convert to humanoid clip with DAE Exporter;

Oh, you've figured it out already.
Yeah, Thanks. You're right, I'll update this to FAQ part.
I recently changed DAE exporter to being able to export multiple clips altogether. Thus haven't covered all the subtle details in docs.

 

I've tried 20+ times and cannot reproduce this twist.

There's a small possibility that you just hit a singlurity that cause Unity animation engine to interpolate that way.
But considering the small degree and with Quaternion interpolation, the chance is quite small.

Could you send this clip to me to take a check?
Maybe it's a bug in the Animation engine interpolation code.

By the way, what's the Unity version you're using?

 

Hmm? I cannot see how this would solve it.
If he really hit the singularity point even in quaternion interpolation, then I think he could only solve it with adding keyframes in the middle.
Flat interpolation would make an abrupt jump in the clip, how would that help?

Ah, yeah, good catch.
I checked the code here that when exporting multiple clips, all of them will use sampleRate of the first clip.
I've always used 60 sampleRate so haven't seen this before.
It's easy to fix, will update the package soon.

 

Everything fine after I figured out how your tool works. It was the dae exporter, but there is a workaround and the second problem is the interpolation between frames. I belive that the second bug could be a bit complicated. Maybe you just have to normalize the angles... Maybe the first angle is 330 and the second -27 and the aniamtion rotates from 330 down to -27 instead from -30 to -27.

Im happy to have your asset!

 

Hi, Developers,

Just submitted Skele v1.9.5 update, should be online in hours.

1.9.5 (Submitted on 2016/04/21)
Fix: DaeExporter, when export multiple clips, used the sample-rate of the first clip with all clips;
Add: AnimationBaker: Compress Angles, to fix extreme euler angles;
Fix: Constraints on negative uniform scale;
Fix: Add non-uniform scale warning for constraints;


Best regards, Be creative,

 

Thanks for the feedback

Hmm, I need do some tests on low sample-rate clips.
For now, just try keeping the sample-rate of clips above 30.

 

I just took some tests on low sample-rate clips,

it seems that Unity will import the archive with sample-rate lower than 24fps as 12.5fps.
I heard that Unity internally use FBXConverter to do the converting, don't know if there's relation with that.

I will try asking Unity people why it's that way.

So anyway, don't use sample rate lower than 24, better keep it above 30, even better 60;

 

Hi sorry for the delay. I am using Unity 5.3.4p1 on Mac OS El Captain. I downloaded the update from the asset store and am still having the same issue, weird! It even does it with IK. I must be doing something wrong. Can I send you the file?

2. Also I seem to be missing a step when trying to edit an fbx anim. Heres what I tried...
a) Duplicate avatar and change to generic
b) duplicate anim clip and change to generic
c) All the animation keys say (missing!), for example. Chest : Rotation (Missing!)

thanks for being helpful

 

Hi, mattSydney,

It seems in the gif that the neck has just hit a singularity, but allowing for the previous leg twist gif, I guess that there's something wrong with keyframe recording / interpolation in U5.3.4p1.

I'm going to download a U5.3.4p1 tonight, please send the clips in question to me, especially the previous "leg twisting" one.

By the way, do you have another version of Unity installed on your machine to try, like Unity5.3.4f1?
If you don't, then forget it, I will download U5.3.4p1 anyway.

Whenever you encounter a curve in clip says "missing", you could always fix it (or inspect it) with AnimCurvePropEditor.
http://www.tmpxyz.com/Skele/docs/84-utility/80-utilities#change-path

There's also a chance that there's another Animator component on a sub-gameObject of your model, which cause that the transform-path to go wrong.

Anyway, you could always diagnose these "missing" clips with AnimCurvePropEditor.




Best regards,

 

Hi, @mattSydney

I've downloaded U5.3.4p1 and tested on it, it's clearly that there're bugs in the AnimationView.

I'm going to download U5.4 beta to test,
if this bug exists in U5.4beta I'll report it to Unity Issues;
If this bug is fixed in U5.4beta, I'll notify you about it.

Best regards,

 

Hi, @mattSydney,

Just checked on U5.4b16, this bug still exists.

I've filed a bug report to Unity.

For now, the only workaround is to use Unity5.3.4f1 or lower.

I'll put this in the FAQ section, and update it when it got fixed;

Best regards, Be creative,

 

Hi, Developers,

Just submitted Skele 1.9.5p2 to AssetStore,
As Unity5.4 changes Editor to inherit ScriptableObject, I made some modifications to adapt this change.
You don't need to update this before Unity5.4 going public.


And as I said in prev post about the AnimationView issue, if you can vote on Unity's Issue Tracker, it would be very helpful to vote on here:
https://issuetracker.unity3d.com/is...e-angles-and-performs-incorrect-interpolation


Best regards,

 

Hi, Developers,

I've just submitted Skele 1.9.6 to AssetStore,

1.9.6 (Submitted on 2016/05/10)
Add: Constraints Setup window, automatically add constraints on biped models;
Add: Floor constraint add UseRaycast option, uses Raycast to decide exact position on non-flat mesh;
Add: Quick-switch model: use Alt+LMB to click another Skinned-Model, will immediately switch to editing that model;
Add: When select a joint in Hierarchy, will select that joint in editor too;

Best regards,

 

Hi, I just got this and am testing it out on an empty project (unity 5.3.4f1), the first thing I tried out was vertex editing and deforming and I've already run into two major bugs.

1) Border selection doesn't work, I see the blue box after I press B and drag but none of the points get selected.
2) Many times (not always) when I create a new deform the deformation is inverted when saved. For example, if I create a bulge on a sphere and save the deform, (0% deform would make a dent in the sphere and 100% deform would be the basis sphere)

Does anybody else experience these bugs? It seems odd that I ran into this much trouble on the first go so I'm wondering if I'm doing something wrong.

Thanks

 

Hi, mrleon,

Thanks for your feedback,

Just put a test on the border selection, it works on my machine and you can see it at imgur here.
http://i.imgur.com/KZhRFLv.gifv

The transparent border-selection (no depth buffer) works fine here,
The non-transparent border-selection (with depth-buffer) works too but has a lower precision which I will work on to improve it.

Please refer to this manual page:
http://www.tmpxyz.com/Skele/docs/80-vertexanim/76-vertex-animation-manual?showall=&start=6

When click "MorphProc", the current shape is taken as "Basis";
that means you need to click "MorphProc" first, then modify the mesh and add new deform;

The keypoint here:
1. Click the "MorphProc" button will add the current mesh shape "A" as "Basis" shape;
2. Modify the mesh to shape "B", click "New deform" and add it as a new shape;
3. when weight = 0, it would be shape "A", when weight = 100, it would be shape "B";


Please tell me if you find anything not clear enough,

Best regards, Be creative,

 

Is there or will there be a form of collision deformer in this asset?

What I mean is this from Mega-Fiers asset.

I can see this useful for my project and would be very helpful.

Thank you if you can get to me, me and my team are exploring solutions to collision deformations of some sort.

 

Hey there

getting the beelow error:. I am unable to animate model in IK. I click W to animate but it doesnt work. I get the below warning. Can you please help

Establish CCDIK on endJoint: leftArm1_HiResLowerArm
UnityEngine.Debug:Log(Object)
Dbg:Log(String) (at Assets/Skele/Common/Dbg.cs:21)
Dbg:Log(String, String) (at Assets/Skele/Common/Dbg.cs:32)
MH.SMREditor:_GetSolver(ISolver, Transform, Int32) (at Assets/Skele/CharacterAnimationTools/Editor/SMREditor.cs:3863)
MH.SMREditor:_TryMakeIKLink(ISolver&, Transform, Int32) (at Assets/Skele/CharacterAnimationTools/Editor/SMREditor.cs:3552)
MH.SMREditor:_TryMakeIKLink(Transform, Int32) (at Assets/Skele/CharacterAnimationTools/Editor/SMREditor.cs:3531)
MH.SMREditor:_ChangeBone4IKLnk(Transform) (at Assets/Skele/CharacterAnimationTools/Editor/SMREditor.cs:3308)
MH.SMREditor:_OnChangeSelectedBone(Transform, Transform) (at Assets/Skele/CharacterAnimationTools/Editor/SMREditor.cs:2159)
MH.SMREditor:OnSceneGUI() (at Assets/Skele/CharacterAnimationTools/Editor/SMREditor.cs:369)
UnityEditor.DockArea:OnGUI()

 

Sorry just an initial hickup. Working now. But the warning still remains.

 

Hi,
I have a question about Skele.

I have a character and animations from Mixamo.
I duplicated the animation so i can edit it and i made the animation only 1 frame long for testing purposes.

I go into edit mode and move the arm of the character into a new position, and i play the animation.
However the animation shows the old pose and it looks like my new position for the arm has not been saved.

So i go into edit mode again and move the arm to a new position and press basicly all the buttons that say save position/rotation/etc, and i play the animation again and it shows the old pose instead of my new pose.

So i create a whole new empty animation, i move the arm into a new position and press, play this time the character does not save all the bones and the character goes to Y position 0. So maybe this is a way to fix this i gues but mixamo characters are made out of parts[bottom/top/etc] so i cant edit the whole character at once i think.

Is there a button inside skele to make a new keyframe that saves every bone's position/rotation etc?

I hope you guys/girls can help me out on this one and give me a bit more insight on this matter.

Thanks and regards

 

Hi, Janet Merai,

Thanks for the interest,

There is no modifier-style deformer in the package, and it's not on the schedule yet.

The next planned major update is about the animation editing, I've been working on gamedev work and doing some research into blender, and I'm considering to add some new feature and revise some workflow after that.

Best regards,

 

Hi, karmik,

Thanks for the feedback,

Just tried here on Unity5.3.4f1, cannot reproduce the warnings in question.

Could you provide details about the Unity version you're using? and are you using the latest Skele package there?

If this issue persists, please send the model in question to me via mail:
TMPxyz at gmail dot com


Best regards,

 

HI, Reaven99,

Thanks for your feedback,

This sounds like your model is in Humanoid rig type, try making it into Generic rig type in model importer.
Check this FAQ:
http://www.tmpxyz.com/Skele/docs/84...rling-pose-when-i-try-to-make-keyframes-on-it

In older Unity version, there was an issue that a clip with only one frame long will not work properly.
It is fixed in new versions, but it's still a good practice to make the clip at least 2 frames, just for making sure.


Tell me if the issue persists,

Best regards, Be creative,

 

I came back after a year and the models I created in makehuman 1.1.0 do not go well with Export model Generic to Animations animation with the new version How do I download old version

 

Thank you for the reply!

I tried your solution but it did not solve the issue.

I set the model to Generic, created a new animation and moved the arm again and once i played the animation it has the same issue.
The model/skeleton gets moved into the ground and does not show the animation.

Will there be an update soon that will fix this and support editing humanoid animations?
I mean that is why i bought the asset in the first place, it is an amazing asset for sure but i am sad i cannot save anything i make.

I am looking forward to your reply.

Regards

 

I've updated to version 5.3.0 and it solves the problem

 

Skele is a really efficient way to make animations directly in the Editor. But a problem (more related to Unity though) is a real show stopper: When the recording of the Unity Animation View is disabled, you can abort rotating of bones by pressing ESC. Also it's possible to undo the last rotations by pressing CTRL + Z (Windows). But with the Animation View beeing in record mode, pressing ESC or CTRL + Z does not work.

Does anybody else have the same problem? I found out that clicking in on the timeline in the Animation View refreshes the mesh but this is really not user friendly solution for the problem...
Does anybody know if this is by design, or a bug?

(Found in Unity 5.3.4f1)

 

Hi, oded,

Thanks for the feedback,

I think the one-year-ago version of exporter can hardly be more bug-free than latest one?
Could you help to clarify :
1. What version of Unity are you using?
2. Are you using the latest version of Skele package? (Check in the AssetStore window from UnityEditor)
3. Can you confirm that both the model and the animation clip are in Generic-rig format?
(you could check that in the AnimationWindow, If the clip is humanoid clip, then the items are all refering to muscles instead of bones)

If the issue persists, please send the model & clip to me


Best regards, Be creative,

 

Hi, Reaven99,

Could you send the model to me so I could check if there's bug lurking.

I've not heard any report like animation cannot be saved, there might be something weird happening or some steps missing.

Please pass me the model and tell me your unity version, please also ensure that the Skele package is the latest version. [send the file to tmpxyz at gmail.com]


Best regards, Be creative,

 

Ha, I missed this post, glad to hear that.

Tell me if you found any other issues.

 

Hi, Uninator,

Thanks for the feedback,

This issue can even backtrace to Unity5.2, you can check it on the issuetrack.unity3d.com.
https://issuetracker.unity3d.com/is...doesnt-have-visible-results-in-the-scene-view

It's marked fixed in Unity5.4,

I strongly recommend you not to upgrade to current Unity5.4beta, the AnimationWindow in current Unity5.4beta is not stable, better update unitl the stable Unity5.4 is released.

As you already know, for now, the only workaround is to scrub on the timeline to force the sceneview to update.

Best regards,

 

Hi TMPxyz,

thanks for your response! Thats good news, looking forward for the 5.4 official release!

Another problem I found is, that the mirror editing function doesn't work with most skeletons. I looked a little bit into your code and what your code basicly does is: It takes the local rotation of one bone, mirrors the quaternion and copies it to the local rotation of the other bone.

I guess this makes problems if the 2 bones that are mirrored have a different "base" orientation so that e.g. rotating one bone in x direction results in a different rotation than rotating the other bone in x direction. (They are two different reference systems so the rotations have to be somehow transformed from the one "bone reference system" to the other).

A good example is the Robot Kyle model which you used for your examples (Skele/_ExampleScenes/Res/Extra/Robot Kyle/Model/Robot Keyl G). If you try to mirror edit the bone "Left_Thigh_Joint_01", the right thigh rotates the wrong way...
If mirroring a bone works or not seems to depend on how the modeller aligned it during rigging.



To solve this issue, I think you need to find a way to convert from one bones reference system to the other bones reference system.

Would be great if you find a way to fix this Thanks!

 

Hi all,
I'm stuck on a non-Skele problem, but hopefully one of you can help me out.
I'm trying to unleash my inner Skele on some mixamo characters/animations, but can't manage to work around their current setup of having individual skinned mesh renderers for each of 'body', 'bottoms', 'tops', 'shoes' etc, which work fine with their original animations, but don't play nice with skele.
Any help would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks.

 

Hi, AwkwardScience,

Skele package could edit multiple pieces of meshes simultaneously,
Just click the 'B' button on the GUI would allow you edit all the meshes at the same time;

You could check this 2-min video for reference:

(A reminder: make sure the model's rig setting in Generic rig)

Tell me if you found anything not clear enough,

Best regards, Be creative,